Northern Territory in June 2013: Dry season pattern in place

June in the NT showed marked signs that the dry season is in full swing. Forty-two stations with more that ten years of records measured 0.0 mm of rainfall for the month. Adelaide River Town saw it's highest total June rainfall on record when it received 1 mm of rain on the 20th, passing it's old record of 0.5 mm set in 2007. Dry season temperatures have been warmer than average; Darwin Airport saw only 2 nights this month with a minimum temperature below 20 °C.

First fire weather warning of the season

On 21 June the Bureau of Meteorology issued their first fire weather warning for the northern fire season. The warning area covered the greater Darwin and rural area and the Vernon area (Batchelor and Litchfield). Bushfire NT issued their first fire ban on the same day.

Although wet season rainfall was generally below average for northern Australia, the short bursts of heavy rain followed by several weeks of sunny and humid weather was ideal for vegetative growth; thus the fuel load is quite high across the Top End as the northern fire season begins. By the end of June the weather had been dry enough for grasses to dry and the fire danger to increase.

Warm nights at Darwin

Even though a dry season pattern has set in, overnight minimum temperatures have been warmer than average this month, especially along the north coast. Darwin Airport had only two nights with a minimum temperature below 20 °C this month, and only four nights below 20 °C for the dry season in total. In an average June, 14 nights see minimum temperatures below the 20 °C mark and about 20 nights in May and June drop below the 20 °C mark. L ast year all 30 nights in June crossed that threshold.

Rainfall

June is typically very dry for the Northern Territory and this month was no exception . This month the Territory average rainfall was only 3.9 mm, which is 3 mm below average for June. A few rainfall events occurred in the northeast Arnhem where a couple of weak gulf lines brought 19.4 mm to Gove Airport, and in the southwest early in the month were a cloudband over Yulara Aero contributed to the total monthly rainfall of 16.6 mm (these were the two wettest locations in the NT this month).

The wettest single day was at Kulgera with 9.0 mm on the 24th, followed by Gove Airport with 8.8 mm on the 2nd, and then Croker Island Airport with 8.2 mm on the 1st.

Although rainfall totals were small, a few sites had their highest total June rainfall on record. With 1.0 mm, Adelaide River Town doubled their previous June record of 0.5 mm set in 2007.

Mean Temperature

When averaging the daily minimum and the daily maximum, the monthly average mean temperature for the Territory this month was 20.1 °C, 1.4 °C above the long-term average for June and the warmest June since 1998.

The warmest mean temperature on average was Cape Don with 28.1 °C, followed by Cape Wessel and Pirlangimpi both with 27.4 °C, and then Jabiru Airport with 27.3 °C.

The coolest mean daily temperature on average was Kulgera with 12.4 °C, followed by Alice Springs Airport with 13.2 °C, and then Arltunga and Yulara Aero with 13.3 °C.

Maximum temperature

The Alice Springs District was the only region of the NT that did not see above- average daily maximum temperatures this month. In the Alice Springs District, the western corner of the NT saw below- average maximums mostly due to increased cloud cover as a northwest cloudband moved over that part of the Territory in the early half of the month. The southeast corner of the NT saw near average maximum temperatures for June. A weak southerly wind surge reached the Top End for only about three days this month, dropping temperatures and dew points. For the rest of the month the temperatures sat above average as the winds maintained an easterly component. When averaged across the Territory , the mean daily maximum temperature for the NT was 26.0 °C, which is 0.7 °C above the long-term average. Pirlangimpi, on Melville Island, was among the few sites to set new records for both their highest June temperature and their highest June mean daily maximum temperature. With a mean daily maximum temperature of 31.5 °C, Tindal RAAF had their warmest June in 17 years (previous June at least this warm was 32.0 °C in 1996)

The hottest day recorded anywhere in the NT was Timber Creek with 35.6 °C on the 27th, and then Douglas River with 35.5 °C on the 12th. The warmest days on average were at Douglas River with 33.5 °C, followed by Bradshaw with 33.1 °C, and then Jabiru Airport and Pirlangimpi both with 33.0 °C.

The coolest days on average were at Kulgera with 17.2 °C, followed by Yulara Aero with 17.9 °C, and then Curtin Springs with 18.2 °C. The coldest day was at Kulgera with 9.8 °C on the 19th, followed by Yulara Aero with 11.5 °C on the 19th, and then Curtin Springs with 11.6 °C on the 19th.

Minimum temperature

Minimum temperatures were above average for most of the Territory this month. The average minimum temperature across the NT in June was 14.21 °C, 2.1 °C above the long- term average. Alice Springs Airport, which sees about 4 days below 0 °C in the average June did not record any sub-zero days this month; 0.3 °C was the lowest daily minimum recorded this month. The mean daily minimum temperature at A lice Springs this month was 7.2 °C which is their warmest June in 17 years. With a mean daily minimum temperature of 21.6 °C Darwin Airport had their warmest June since 1987 when the mean June minimum was 21.8 °C. Several sites had their highest June mean daily minimum temperature on record including Jabiru Airport, Middle Point, and Ngayawili. Ngayawili also saw their warmest June night (highest daily minimum temperature) on record this month when the temperature failed to go below 24.3 °C on the 11th.

The coldest nights in the Territory this month were all at Arltunga with -3.4 °C on the 22nd, –2.8 °C on the 23rd, and – 2.7 °C on the 21st. The coolest nights on average were at Alice Springs Airport with 7.2 °C, followed by Arltunga and Kulgera both with 7.5 °C, and then Curtin Springs with 8.5 °C.

The warmest nights on average were at Cape Wessel with 25.0 °C, followed by Cape Don with 24.9 °C, and then McCluer Island with 24.6 °C. The warmest night was at Cape Don with 26.3 °C on the 7th, followed by Cape Wessel with 26.2 °C on the 13th and again on the 18th.

Wind

The strongest wind gusts around the NT this month were all at coastal locations. The strongest was at McCluer Island with 70 km/h on the 7th, followed by Cape Wessel with 67 km/h on the 30th and 65 km/h on the 7th and on the 9th, and then McCluer Island again, also with 65 km/h on the 30th.

Notes

A Monthly Climate Summary is prepared to list the main features of the weather in Northern Territory using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated. Later information, including data that has had greater opportunity for quality control, will be presented in the Monthly Weather Review, usually published in the fourth week of the month.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at
10 am on Monday 1 July 2013.
Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change
as new information becomes available.

Averages are long-term means based on observations from
all available years of record, which vary widely from site to site.
They are not shown for sites with less than 10 years of record, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.
The median
is sometimes more representative than the
mean
of long-term average rain.

The Rank indicates how rainfall this time compares with the climate record for the site,
based on the
decile ranking
(very low rainfall is in decile 1, low in decile 2 or 3,
average in decile 4 to 7, high in decile 8 or 9
and very high is in decile 10).
The Fraction of average shows how much rain has fallen this time as a
percentage of the long-term mean.

The ACORN-SAT dataset
is being used for temperature area averages from December 2012 onwards.
The major change from earlier datasets is that the ACORN-SAT dataset commences in 1910, rather than 1950,
and hence rankings are calculated using a larger set of years.